Simon Collister
James Cronin, Company Secretary and Treasurer
Louise Ferguson, Vice-Chair
David Harris
William Heath, Acting Chair
Ben Laurie
Harry Metcalfe
Danny O’Brien
Vijay Sodiwala

Simon Collister

Simon is a leading UK PR and marketing blogger with an acute understanding of how the Internet is shaping the communications landscape. He is currently Head of Digital for the global PR firm, Weber Shandwick’s, consumer division where he delivers digital thought leadership and creative strategy to a range of international clients. Prior to working with Weber Shandwick, Simon was Head of Digital Culture and Emerging Media with the PR firm, Edelman. As well as helping Weber Shandwick’s clients adapt to an emerging digital society, Simon has also completed academic research which examined the shifting role of political communications in relation to the media agenda in the online space. Before the heady days of digital communications, Simon worked in PR and policy roles with a number of national NGOs.

James Cronin

James is a technologist. He has worked on the UK Internet scene since before the web was invented as developer, systems administrator, technical director or CTO for a number of top UK ISPs, service providers and media companies. James is recognized as an e-democracy pioneer having co-founded the UK’s most successful e-democracy project, volunteer-run service: FaxYourMP. He is the co-founder of mySociety.org and TheyWorkForYou.com and serves as the Chairman and director of their parent registered charity: UK Citizens Online Democracy. James has been active in numerous multi award-winning online campaigning organisations, such as the anti internet snooping bill project: Stand. He volunteers for Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth and is a board member of the NO2ID campaign. Currently for a day job James is Executive Director and Chief Architect of the e-commerce software as a service company, Venda, which he co-founded. Here he provides market leading on-demand, global e-commerce capabilities on a fully managed basis to more than 200 of the world’s most significant and successful retailers. For fun, he runs the UK’s finest boutique chocolate shop, Paul A Young Fine Chocolates, with his business partner.

Louise Ferguson

Louise Ferguson is a London-based consultant offering usability and user experience expertise across Europe. Louise is VP of the UK Chapter of the Usability Professionals Association and co-director of its Voting and Usability Project. She combines expertise in qualitative approaches to user research, design and evaluation, with cross-cultural experience, having lived and worked in several countries. Louise has consulted with BP, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Castrol, the DTI, the NHS, BT, and the Design Council. She is frequently asked for comment by the media on themes relating to people and technology.

David Harris

David is an intellectual property and IT barrister in private practice, representing a wide variety of clients. In his previous life David was an R&D physicist. In what little private time he has he writes appallingly bad software and plays with Linux. In addition to ORG David provides what legal advice he can to NO2ID and other civil liberties organisations. David’s hobbies are karate, free-fall parachuting, motorcycles, Linux/geeky computer stuff and hiking.

William Heath

William founded Kable Ltd, the London-based public-sector IT market research and media company which became part of Guardian New & Media in August 2007. He tries to create better understanding about the implications of computerisation on government service quality, cost and trust. He moderates the Ideal Government blog, advises the Foundation for Information Policy Research, and is a Fellow of the Young Foundation, the UK’s incubator for social entrepreneurship and innovation where he’s working on better feedback mechanisms about public services.

Ben Laurie

Ben is one of the UK’s foremost experts in security. He is the Director of Security for The Bunker Secure Hosting, where he has worked since 1984 and is responsible for security, cryptography and network design. He is the author of Apache-SSL, the global number one open source secure internet web server, and is a core team member of OpenSSL, the world’s most widely used cryptographic library. He is co-author of Apache: The Definitive Guide, is a founding Director of Apache Software Foundation (ASF) and the Head of the ASF Security Team.

Harry Metcalfe

Harry is a web entrepreneur. He created TellThemWhatYouThink.org, a site that automatically aggregates central government consultation documents. His company, The Dextrous Web, solves interesting problems on the web. They have worked with a variety of clients in the public and private sector, including The Cabinet Office, The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and Guardian News & Media. He has been involved with the Open Rights Group since its inception. He has a particular interest in making public sector information discoverable and resuable, fighting for copyright reform, making the public consultation process more transparent and accountable and strengthening the Freedom of Information Act.

Danny O’Brien

Danny has documented and fought for digital rights in the UK for over a decade, where he also assisted in building tools of open democracy like Fax Your MP. He founded the award-winning NTK newsletter, has written and presented science and travel shows for the BBC, performed a solo show about the Net in the London’s West End, and accidentally started the self-improvement “life hacks” movement. He currently lives in the United States, where he is Activism Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Vijay Sodiwala

Vijay Sodiwala is a technology, media and telecommunications executive, who holds a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and an MBA from London Business School. He has worked as an executive and/or consultant with leading TMT companies in the UK such as BSkyB, News International, Tiscali and Video Networks. Career highlights include launching the first UK copper phone line triple play (TV, broadband & voice) service in 2004, as MD and Executive Director of Video Networks. Vijay is a regular speaker on triple play and convergence initiatives.